So your looking for a new LAN Party Case for your rig, some are small and easy to carry and because of that there is no room for your larger video card. Next you look at another case that is big and has plenty of room for your video card, but now that in itself becomes a problem because now not only do you have a case that’s heavy case but is also awkward to carry and navigate the pathways. Well before you give up on looking take a look at the NZXT Panzerbox. As the name assumes this case is a tank, being very short and made of solid aluminum it makes this case nice and light and easy to carry as well as being extremely open inside with plenty of room for custom mods and large video cards and MOBOs of all sizes. Let’s take a closer look at what else makes this case unique:

Price: $109.99

Closer Look:

Let's move on to the specs and features

NZXT Panzerbox

Features
 

• Mid Sized, Extreme Performance : Fitted with dual high performance 150CFM controllable 190cm fans and a dual radiator bracket to provide the best performance, the Panzerbox offers high performance for a mid sized case due to its unique layout.
• Removable Motherboard Tray: A removable motherboard tray makes upgrading easy and painless.
• Pure Aluminum: Build in all aluminum, the Panzerbox is light and luxurious, perfect for traveling and showing off at LAN parties. Compared to similar products with high airflow and ATX expandability, the Panzerbox is almost 25% smaller and 50% lighter.
• Full Expandability: Room for high performance 10.5" cards, over sized heatsinks, even larger dual radiator solutions.
• Top mounted USB/Audio/ESATA Ports

Test Setup:

• CPU: Q6600
• CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-C12P
• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3
• Memory: 2 x 2GB Kingston
• OS: Windows XP Home SP3
• Video Card: MSI Geforce GTS 250
• Power Supply: Nexus RX-1K 1000 Watt

Testing:

For Testing I will be recording the temps of my system while it runs both idle and while under load. To achieve the load status I will be running the Prime-95 Torture Test to get things nice and warm inside, well as warm as the ambient 14°C (57°F) in the room will let it. I will be pitting the NZXT Panzerbox against my favorite case at my disposal, the Coolermaster CM Storm Sniper.

Ok to tell you the truth the NZXT Panzerbox did way better than I thought it was going to do, but still it does make sense. With this case’s wide open space inside it provides plenty of air flow to move throughout the case providing optimal cooling and with the way it’s designed it limits the amount of warm air that can be in the case all at once before a pocket of warm air could even think of building up. Also to get the numbers I got from my Sniper case I have three cold air intakes, two 200mm and a 120mm, and two exhaust fans, a 200mm and a 120. So to see the three fans in the little Panzerbox to do that well I thought it was worth mentioning.

Let’s move on to my final thoughts:

Conclusion:

In the end I found that the NZXT Panzer box is a great little case. At first I thought it just looked unique but doubted that it would be as good as it proved to be. In the past with small cases that boasted that they were good at handling top of the line computers while being small enough to be portable for LAN parties was a little stretch, mainly when it came to a large CPU cooler. With the NZXT Panzerbox’s removable MOBO tray I found it was nice and easy to install the motherboard with my large Noctua Cooler and then be able to just slide the components right into place proving that this was one of the best small cases that I have used.

One of the things that I really liked about this case turned out to ruin one of my favorite personal preferences with gaming cases was the cable management. Because of the rails that the MOBO tray run on it cuts off most of the access that would normally be used for openings to run cables behind, however with how short the case was already there really wasn’t much room above or below my MOBO and the top and bottom of the case so really that would be much of an option anyways. One other thing and this really isn’t an issue as long as you take a second to think about it is the placement of the power supply. With my video card I found that it fit just fine, but if it was any shorter (approx. An inch or so), and had the power connector on the side I don’t think that I would have been able to successfully connect power to my card. Other than those two minor points I still found the NZXT Panzerbox to be one of the best gaming cases that I have ever used.

So in the end I would have to say that If you are looking for a great little computer case that’s small, light, and compact yet extremely easy to work in, I would have to say that the NZXT Panzerbox should be near the top of your next shopping list. With this little case you can fit almost any sized MOBO that you could think of in and some of the larger CPU coolers out there as well, while not sacrificing airflow or good looks in the process.

Pros:

• Small, compact, light, yet sturdy build
• Looks unique
• Extremely easy to work in
• I love thumbscrews as a tool less option
• Great airflow
• Lots of room on the inside

Cons:

• Little to no cable management
• A little cramped once one or more video cards are installed

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